Branded “CPM supporters” and browbeaten by the CM, the women shut up and shut themselves indoors. On Monday, they had rushed to their Didi simply to seek safety in an area where sexual brutality is the order of the day. Mamata’s outburst shocked them. Trinamool Congress‘ scare tactics silenced them.

Party toughs targeted Tumpa Koyal, who had gone eyeball to eyeball with Mamata on Monday, demanding that the Kamduni women be heard. Tumpa was a friend of the rape-murder victim and had studied with her till Class X. She had left her lunch on Monday and run after the CM, pleading to be heard. Mamata turned around and called her a CPM supporter.

On Tuesday, a rough-talking lungi-clad man, who identified himself as gram sabhapati Goutam Naskar, arrived at Tumpa’s doorstep along with seven-eight musclemen and threatened her parents, demanding that she apologize publicly for “insulting our beloved chief minister”.

“Mind it, this is for your own good,” he cautioned.

Luckily, her husband had whisked her away in the dead of night. Naskar then demanded her mobile number. Her parents said they didn’t have it. “You want me to believe that you don’t have your daughter’s contact number?” he thundered, warning everyone around that “party leaders” had started collecting “bio-data on all Kamduni women”.

Tumpa’s parents pleaded with folded hands to spare her, but Naskar shooed them away, saying Tumpa had to “stand in the middle of the village courtyard and confess she had committed a grave mistake”.

“Do you know how easy it is to get hold of someone’s mobile number,” Naskar warned her parents as he walked off.

The village courtyard, which was bustling for the past few days, looked deserted. The lanes were all but empty. The local school couldn’t even muster 30% attendance as the frightened villagers kept their kids indoors. Some women sitting at a tubewell scurried off when TOI tried to talk to them. One of them covered her face with her hands and said: “Don’t ask us anything. We haven’t seen anything, said anything or know anything. We don’t even exist.” The stink of fear was stifling.

It took an hour or so of knocking on doors before they opened up. “We ran after Didi just to tell our problems. We thought she would understand the village women’s fear. Instead, she treated us like dogs,” said Shankari Mondal. “She (Mamata Banerjee) has ruthlessly shattered our confidence. The message is clear to the culprits, they’ll reclaim their territory in a few days. The whole village fears the worst.”

Their fear is understandable, said Debu Mondal, a villager. “The women had lost all hope on the police and local leaders. Yesterday, they lost their last, very deep-rooted hope when Didi cursed them. Where will they go now?”

“We are scared. The whole village is tagged as ‘CPM’. Tell me, do you see a single CPM flag anywhere? This time, only one Left Front candidate could file his nomination in the 12 seats. Trinamool has a clean sweep here. We apprehend her anger will give rise to an evil force. We were only trying to bring some peace and stability in this unfortunate village,” said Poritosh Mondal, a farmer.

Another woman said: “We didn’t go for a movement. Didi was our last refuge. We just wanted to hold her hand but she let us down. We feel helpless. Who do we turn to?” Kamduni primary school headmaster Pradip Mukherjee understood the villagers’ plight. “When the villagers referred to her as ‘Didi’, how can they be in the opposition? The call ‘Didi’ itself is so affectionate and cordial. There must have been some miscommunication,” he said.

Tumpa’s father Probhas, a daily wage worker in a fishery, and her mother Molina were scared even to disclose their identity. “Look at our ramshackle hut. Do you think we work for CPM? My worry is whether I can feed my family the next meal,” said Probhas.

On the way back, we saw a young woman hurrying across the culvert on Bidyadhari canal, looking back now and then. It was just getting dark under a cloudy sky. A group of women armed with a lantern and torch emerged from a bylane and rebuked her for daring to move out alone “so late”. It was only 5.15pm. One of the women said: “Be careful. The times have changed.”

Nadia (west Bengal): If you think we have learned a lesson from the Delhi-gang rape of a student in moving bus, then think again. Crime against girls has shown no sign of abetting. Now, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped and strangulated to death while she was returning home from school in Nadia district, police said on Tuesday.

According to police, the Class VII student had on Monday taken shelter under a railway shed in Gede area as it was raining. Her neighbour, Bimal Sardar, offered to share his umbrella to walk back home.

Police said Sardar accompanied by two other associates took her behind a turmeric bush and gang-raped her. They then strangulated her to death. Her body was recovered by the police on Tuesday morning, the officials said. Locals, who had seen the girl with Sardar, handed him over to the police after beating him up.

DSP (HQ) Dibyajyoti Das said, “The accused Bimal is now in police custody. He confessed his fault in the interrogation. He also told the names two of his associates, but they are absconding. Police will arrest them soon”. In a separate case in Nadia’s Shantipur area, a woman’s body buried under the ground was spotted by locals on Tuesday. Police said it is being suspected that the woman was raped and then killed.

The HinduThe Odisha natives, who had been working under inhuman conditions in brick kilns, were sent back home on Tuesday night — Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

At the end of an investigation that went on through the night until the crack of dawn on Tuesday, district officials established they were victims of bonded labour

Uttam was given only one day off in a week to venture out of the brick kiln. Even on that day somebody would accompany him.

Uttam was one of the 273 labourers from Odisha who were tricked into working as bonded labourers at two brick kilns in Chennai’s neighbouring Tiruvallur district. The labourers, who were allegedly working under inhuman conditions for a weekly payment of Rs. 300 to Rs. 400 per family, were rescued by revenue officials in an overnight raid on Monday.

At the end of an investigation that went on through the night until the crack of dawn on Tuesday, district officials established they were victims of bonded labour.

One hundred and eighty nine workers were handed ‘release certificates’ that identified them as bonded labourers, thereby enabling them for government rehabilitation packages. They were also given Rs. 1,000 each as initial rehabilitation payments and tickets for their journey to Bolanghir in Odisha.

Huddled beside Dhanbad Express at Chennai Central station on Tuesday evening and clinging to their meagre belongings, they recalled the difficult working conditions in the kilns, where even children were made to work.

Manoj from Kantabanji in Odisha, who worked as a driver at the kiln, got just three to four hours of sleep every day. “I was promised a salary of Rs. 7,000 a month, but got Rs. 15,000 for three months and nothing for the last two.”

While the labourers spoke in Odia, Annie Baptist, a volunteer with International Justice Mission (IJM), the NGO that assisted the district officials with the rescue, translated.

Sountharba, (45), said the family had taken a loan of Rs. 50,000 for her son’s wedding which they were unable to repay. When a ‘seth’ (middleman) offered to pay them an advance of Rs. 48,000 for four members in the family, they went to work in the kilns as they wanted to pay back the debt taken from other persons.

“My husband, son, daughter-in-law and I came here in January and were made to work six days a week from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. with few breaks in between,” she said.

Twelve-year-old Dinesh, who spoke little Hindi, said he attended school between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and was then made to work between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Baduku, another labourer, complained that if one of the members in the family was unwell, the wages would be accordingly cut.

After seven months of working close to 17 hours a day for six days a week at a place nearly 1,200 kilometers away from their home districts of Bolanghir, Naupada, Barghar and Nabranghpur districts in Odisha, the labourers on Tuesday night boarded the Dhanbad Express for a day-long journey home.

No criminal charges

Tiruvallur district collector K. Veera Raghava Rao said the labourers were rescued from the two kilns that were operating under the name ‘Eswari Brick Works’ in Thirukandalam village of Otthukottai taluk. Though the descriptions of the working conditions, provided by IJM, which assisted the district officials, sounded grave, the revenue department could only file penalties against the proprietors of the brick kiln under the Bonded Labour Abolition Act (BLA) of 1976, Mr. Rao said.

When it was pointed out that a press release from IJM noted that some labourers were beaten by the employers for demanding fair payment, the Collector said details would be collected of specific instances and if required, cases would be filed under IPC.

Tiruvallur district has close to 300 brick kilns that provide resources for the booming construction industry in Chennai. It is populated with a lot of labour-intensive small industries, including rice mills.

Three police commandos were suspended for allegedly beating up a patient and five others, who were accompanying him, on the way to a hospital in Bishenpur district of Manipur, police said on Tuesday.

The suspension order of sub-inspector Bung Singh and two constables (all commandos) was issued by the Superintendent of Police of Bishenpur district Radheshyam Singh on Monday.

Khwairakpam Paka (32), under acute pain following detection of stones in his kidney, and his five companions including a woman, were beaten up by the three policemen in an inebriated condition when Paka was being taken from his home at Thanga to a private clinic in Imphal at around 10 pm on Saturday, police said.

Different social organisations had complained to the police about the incident. Three Manipur Rifles personnel and one jawan of India Reserve Battalion were also allegedly involved in the incident.

Respective commanding officers of the Manipur Rifles personnel and IRB jawan have been informed to take action against them, the sources said

HISAR, TNN : Infuriated over a dalit’s buffalo rubbing its back against the wall of his house and dirtying it, a man allegedly drowned a 12-year-old girl in a pond at Banbhori village in Hisar district on Wednesday. The police registered a case of murder against the accused and arrested him.

According to the police complaint lodged by the girl’s grandfather, Ram Kumar, she was pushed into the pond by Rakesh Kumar alias Raka, a 24-year-old Jat.

“My granddaughter had gone to the pond where the buffalo was drinking water on Monday,” Ram Kumar said in the FIR. “Rakesh told her not to bring cattle near the pond or he would push her into the water.” Rakesh’s house is located on the way to the pond

According to DSP Barwala Jai Prakash, the complainant said his buffalo, which his granddaughter Munni took to the pond every evening, habitually rubbed its back against the wall of Rakesh’s house. On Wednesday, the animal instinctively repeated the act. When Rakesh saw the wall had been dirtied, he allegedly pushed Munni into the pond.

“When Munni did not return home till late evening, I told my neighbours about it and started searching for her,” Ram Kumar said. “When we reached the pond, we saw her body floating.”

“A case under Section 320 of the IPC and the SC/ST Act has been registered against the accused,” said Rahul Sharma, superintendent of police, Hisar. “Police teams have arrested the accused. They will produce him in court and demand his remand.”

Prakash said the police were recording the statements of the girl’s family and probing the matter.

Village sarpanch Chandi Ram claimed the two parties held a three-hour meeting on Thursday and struck a compromise. “The girl’s father will submit an affidavit to the police and the court regarding the compromise,” he said. “It seemed unlikely the youth had drowned the girl.”

Bhairi Akbarpur (Hisar), Apr 28
Rape cases have nearly doubled in Haryana in the first three months of the year, according to government figures. Till March 31, 214 rape cases were reported as against 121 in the same period last year. Exactly a week ago, a family of five consumed poison in Bheri Akbarpur village, 50 km from Hisar, allegedly tormented by the police over the whereabouts of their elder daughter, who is missing after being raped last year, and on account of poverty.

An eerie silence prevails in the one-room dilapidated house where Mohan (all names changed to protect identity), his wife Sunita, their 13-year-old daughter Sandhya and sons Amit (11) and Rajiv (9) consumed celphos in the early hours of Monday. Mohan is the lone survivor and is recuperating in PGIMS, Rohtak.

Mohan’s eldest daughter, all of 15, was allegedly kidnapped and raped for two days by a villager, Rohtash, on May 15, 2012. He was arrested on May 17 and has been on trial for rape and abduction. On July 6, 2012, the victim disappeared. Mohal alleged that not only would the police keep pressing him to locate her, but the family had been suffering humiliation at the hands of the villagers as well.

While the suicide by the family has shaken the conscience of people across the state, those living around Mohan’s house seemed indifferent to the tragedy. “We had no interaction with the family,” says Ram Kumar, Mohan’s immediate neighbour. Mohan, a Dalit, had bought this house in an area of upper caste Jats after selling his old house some time back.

Ram Kumar says Mohan would usually leave in the morning for neighbouring Uklana town about 1.5 km from the village with his loading rickshaw, which he used to rent out. “His wife used to work as and when she got work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme. The three children used to go to school. The family seldom interacted with others in the village,” he adds.

Inquiries reveal that the family had been living in isolation ever since Mohan’s 15-year-old daughter eloped twice, was raped and then disappeared within two months of her recovery last July. In fact, Mohan had sold off his house in the Dalit Basti at the south end of the village and purchased a rundown house in the north end where upper caste Jats and others lived to escape taunts from his community members.

“We tried to counsel him and advised him to marry off his daughter after we heard of her first elopement. But he did not listen to us and, instead, shifted to a new neighbourhood,” say Mohan’s uncles Kanshi Ram and Dayanand amid receiving mourners.

“Mohan went into a shell after his daughter disappeared and did not discuss his problems with anyone,” says Dayanand. “We did not know he was under immense police pressure to produce his missing daughter. They wanted to produce her in a Hisar court on April 30 to record her statement. We came to know about this only after the family consumed poison.”

The day Mohan and his family consumed poison, the SHO of Uklana police station is alleged to have told Mohan to find his daughter and warned him of dire consequences if he failed to do so.

“Ladki ko dhoond ke la nahi to tujhe ulta taang doonga (find the girl or I will hang you),” he is alleged to have said. The SHO has since been sent on leave by the SP, though the allegation has been denied by the police.

“My nephew did not know his daughter’s whereabouts. How could he have produced him before the SHO?” asks Kanshi Ram.

Villagers also say the family’s financial condition was bad and Mohan had sold his rickshaw some days back. Mohan told mediapersons from the hospital that his children had not eaten in two days. He said other members of his family chose to end their lives with him rather than lead a “hopeless life”.

Unable to cope with police pressure, fed up with his poverty and with no support system to bank upon, Mohan appears to have taken the extreme step.

The Head Teacher of the Government Primary School in the village remembers 11-year-old Amit and nine-year-old Rajiv as good students, but sensitive by nature. “Both Amit and Rajiv were extremely good in studies and very docile and submissive. Children often quarrel and sometimes hit each other, but these boys would come to me teary-eyed if a classmate said anything,” says said Mohinder Singh. The girl Sandhya, who studied in the adjoining middle school, is also described as a quiet student, who did not have many friends in class.

Ironically, the children’s last journey was also quite silent, as very few villagers turned up at the cremation or to mourn their death.

Victims of circumstances

The family sold off its house in the Dalit Basti and purchased a rundown house where upper caste Jats and others lived to escape taunts from community members after its minor girl was raped

The day the family consumed poison, Uklana SHO is alleged to have told the girl’s father to find her and warned him of dire consequences if he failed to do so

Villagers say the family’s financial condition was bad and the rickshaw-puller had sold off his rickshaw some days back

The family had not eaten in two days at the time of the suicide and the rape victim’s father said other members chose to end their lives with him rather than lead a “hopeless life”

Mohan went into a shell after his daughter disappeared and did not discuss his problems with anyone. We did not know he was under immense police pressure to produce his missing daughter. They wanted to produce her in a Hisar court on April 30 to record her statement. We came to know about this only after the family consumed poison..— Dayanand, Mohan’s uncle

NEW DELHI: In the first incident, a 15-year-old girl studying in a government school was allegedly abducted from east Delhi by three property dealers in an SUV, taken to a flat at Sarojini Nagar and raped for over three hours. The brutalized girl was then dumped near the Sarojini Nagar market around 1pm, after being warned that her family will be murdered if she approached the police.While the main accused – Pradeep, 28, a father of two – has been arrested, the two others, Rahul, 23, and Amit, 24, are absconding. A case of gang rape and kidnapping has been registered at the New Ashok Nagar police station. Police said the victim, a resident of Dallupara in the New Ashok Nagar, was on her way to school on Wednesday morning around 7am when three men in a black Scorpio stopped her. Since the victim knew Pradeep, she stopped to speak to him. “The accused reportedly took the girl to a flat in Sarojini Nagar, where they raped her one by one,” said a senior district police officer. The victim reached home in an auto and reported the matter to her parents.The second crime was also reported from east Delhi. A 5-year-old boy, enrolled in a private school in Govindpura near Jagatpuri, has alleged that his teacher had sodomized him inside the school. Police said the lower KG student returned home compaining of pain on Tuesday. “The parents reached the school on Wednesday where the boy identified the aggressor as a teacher named Pramod, 32,” police officer said. The accused has been arrested.

Two teenagers, including a Class 10 student, were apprehended for allegedly molesting a 27-year-old woman tutor in a moving bus in northwest Delhi’s Rohini on Monday evening. The cops nabbed the duo who, they said, were over 18 years old. While one of the two studies in Class 10, the other works as a labourer.

The instances of Multinationals stealing indigenous medicines is well-known.

So are the capricious overpricing of life saving Drugs, like Cancer Drugs.

“

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board rejected the German drug maker’s appeal of the 2012 ruling on Monday. It also ruled that under the license Natco must pay 7 per cent in royalties on net sales to Bayer.

Bayer sells a one month supply of the drug for about $5,600. Natco’s version would cost Indian patients $175 a month, less than 1/30th as much.

Western pharmaceutical companies have been pushing for stronger patent protections inIndia to regulate the country’s $26 billion US generics industry, which they say frequently flouts intellectual property rights. However, health activists and aid groups counter that Indian generics are a lifesaver for patients in poor countries who cannot afford Western prices to treat diseases such as cancer, malaria and HIV.’

‘People in developing countries worldwide will continue to have access to low-cost copycat versions of drugs for diseases like H.I.V. and cancer, at least for a while…

Production of the generic drugs in India, the world’s biggest provider of cheap medicines, was ensured on Monday in a ruling by the Indian Supreme Court.

Cost of Glivec used for targeted therapy in CML patients: 1 lakh per month (approx)

Cost of its generic versions : 8,000 -10 ,000 per month

No. of cancer centres in India: 450 approx (half are in the private sector)

The debate over global drug pricing is one of the most contentious issues between developed countries and the developing world. While poorer nations maintain they have a moral obligation to make cheaper, generic drugs available to their populations — by limiting patents in some cases — the brand name pharmaceutical companies contend the profits they reap are essential to their ability to develop and manufacture innovative medicines.

Specifically, the decision allows Indian makers of generic drugs to continue making copycat versions of the drug Gleevec, which is made by Novartis. It is spelled Glivec in Europe and elsewhere. The drug provides such effective treatment for some forms of leukemia that the Food and Drug Administration approved the medicine in the United States in 2001 in record time. The ruling will also help India maintain its role as the world’s most important provider of inexpensive medicines, which is critical in the global fight against deadly diseases. Gleevec, for example, can cost as much as $70,000 a year, while Indian generic versions cost about $2,500 a year.

The ruling comes at a challenging time for the pharmaceutical industry, which is increasingly looking to emerging markets to compensate for lackluster drug sales in the United States and Europe. At the same time, it is facing other challenges to its patent protections in countries like Argentina, the Philippines, Thailand and Brazil.

“I think other countries will now be looking at India and saying, ‘Well, hold on a minute — India stuck to its guns,’ ” said Tahir Amin, a director of the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge, a group based in New York that works on patent cases to foster access to drugs.

In trade agreements — including one being negotiated between the United States and countries in the Pacific Rim — the drug industry has lobbied for stricter patent restrictions that would more closely resemble protections in the United States.

When 26-year-old Parvez Azhar from Assam, who lives and works in Bangalore, went to Hulimavupolice station Monday to file a complaint about losing his marks cards, little did he expect to be abused roundly by the station house officer. Parvez’s fault? Not being able to speak Kannada.

It was third visit of Parvz, an employee in a pharmaceutical company, to the police station to file the complaint about the loss of his final semester marks card of his BSc biotechnology from St John’s College. He lost the marks card while riding his bike to Arakere 10 days ago, and he realised about the loss much later. Since then he was made to go to the police station repeatedly, only to be told that he had get an affidavit detailing how he lost the marks sheets, in order to file the complaint. Parvez was at the station, armed with the affidavit.

“I was trying to tell station head Nagarajaiah that I have got the affidavit done. He did not even bother to look at the affidavit, asking me to bring a letter from the college. As I tried to explain that the college authorities have asked me to come with the FIR, Nagarajaiah asked me whether I knew Kannada,” Parvez told DNA.

Parvez told the cop that he could speak in Kannada a bit and and was learning the language. The policemen asked him for how long was living in Bangalore. The young man told seven years, and this got the policeman’s goat, who began loudly abusing him.

“After abusing me, Nagarajaiah asked me why I could not speak Kannada after staying here for so long, and why i had not tried. He went on to complain that people like me come here to ride their bike wherever wanted and do not even bother to learn Kannada,” Parvez said.

Refusing to entertain Parvez’s affidavit which they had suggested he get done, Nagarajaiah said he would regiser a complaint only if he brought a letter from college.

“Otherwise I could go back to his native in Assam and get and lodge a complaint there, Nagarajaiah told me,” recounts Parvez.
@ashimysore

KOLKATA: A 25-year-old woman with physical disabilities was allegedly raped by her neighbour in an abandoned house at Bhatikhna in the Behala police area on Monday.

The victim, however, told her mother about the assault nearly 48 hours later following which a police complaint was lodged on Wednesday.

The accused has gone into hiding.

On Monday evening, the victim was walking alone on the road when her 50-year-old neighbour, Bikash Ghosh, a house painter, lured her with food to an abandoned building near Bhatikhana.

Ghosh then allegedly raped the victim and left her there in a semi-conscious state.

Soon, three youths passing by the area heard the woman’s cry and took her to her house. The trio requested the woman’s sister-in-law not to allow her to go out of the house alone.

Later, the victim told her mother that three youths had brought her home and did not divulge any further details. Since she was traumatized, her family members did not disturb her, said a police officer.

It was only on Tuesday night that the woman mustered courage and told her mother that she had been raped by Ghosh.

The victim’s father lodged a complaint at Behala police station on Wednesday.

Police said that clothes the woman was wearing at the time of the assault had been taken for forensic tests. She will also undergo a medical examination.

However the delay of nearly two days will hamper the prospect of the investigation, an officer said. The medical tests should have been conducted within 24 hours of the assault. But the complaint came late, he added.

A physically challenged woman was allegedly raped by her neighbour at an abandoned house at Bhatikhana area in Behala police station area. The woman, nearly 48 hours after the incident, confessed the incident to her mother. On Wednesday, a formal complaint was lodged by the father of the victim. The accused is however absconding.

On Monday, evening the accused Bikash Ghosh, 50, a paint-labourer found the victim alone on the road. He allured her with food to an abandoned house near Bhatikhana. There he raped her and left her abandoned in the house in a semi-conscious state. Three youths passing by the area rescued the woman after hearing the groaning sound of the woman.

Three youths then took her to her home at Tarpan Ghat Road and requested her sister-in-law not to allow the victim to go out of the house alone. They did not say anything else to victim’s sister-in-law. Later she told victim’s mother about three youths who had brought her home. But the victim was too traumatised to say anything. Her family members did not disturb her, said a police officer.

On Tuesday night, after settling down with her trauma, the victim confessed how she was raped by the accused. She broke down in tears. On Wednesday morning, they lodged complaint with Behala police station. Police said that the her clothes at the time of the incident were confiscated for forensic tests. She would also be undergoing medical examination.

However the delay, an investigating officer said, would hamper the prospect of the investigation. The medical tests should have been conducted with 24 hours of the incident. But the complaint came late.